Japan setting up embassy in Apia

The Japanese government is establishing an embassy in Apia with the view of bolstering its diplomatic relationship with Samoa.

Expected to open at the end of March, the embassy will be located at the Samoa National Provident Fund (SNPF) Plaza on Beach Road.

It will offer full diplomatic services some of which had not been readily available to Samoans up to now. The man who is in charge of the project is “Counsellor” Kazumasa Shibuta, the Japanese government’s troublingshooting “ambassador.”

In an interview last week, Mr Shibuta reveals that he has been setting up embassies for his government all over the world. He says he has worked in some of the world’s “trouble spots” such as Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Islamabad, Pakistan and in the Pacific, East Timor.

In Tanzania he also worked as a volunteer photographer for the Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA.) But it is setting up embassies that has taken up most of Mr Shibuta’s time.

In Apia, he has set up his country’s temporary embassy at the Tanoa Tusitala Hotel in anticipation of the arrival Japan’s ambassador to New Zealand, Mr Masaki Nogoya.